


thunderclouds rend the air

by indigotortoise



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-01
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-10-26 07:33:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10782369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indigotortoise/pseuds/indigotortoise
Summary: Tsukiyama and Chie have a chat with someone they knew back in high school.





	thunderclouds rend the air

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently Seidou's sister went to Seinan Gakuin, making it likely that Seidou attended the same school and would have been in the same year as Tsukiyama and Chie. I wrote this last year but never published it for some reason.

The boat ride back to the mainland was both cramped and incredibly awkward. Naki and Miza looked on with disgust as Chie pulled out a first-aid kit from her bag and nodded to Nishiki, who told Tsukiyama to keep Roma restrained while he began to disinfect and dress the barely conscious Akira’s injuries to the best of his ability; years had passed since he was forced to leave his life as a pharmaceutical student behind, but he still had knowledge of medicine and medical treatment firmly etched into his mind.

“Why don’t we just _eat_ her?” Naki spat. “She’s a fucking dove.”

“Because I will kill everyone on this boat if you do that,” Takizawa replied, hovering over him like a hawk leering at a mouse in a field and dragged his tongue along the inside of his teeth in irritation.

“There’s, what, twelve of us and one of you? Thirteen if you count the tiny human,” Miza pointed out. “You can’t do that, Takizawa.”

She was right. Everyone was worn out from fighting, but there was no way he would be able to follow through with his threat. It was empty, but the coldness he had said it with was enough to make Naki settle and stare out at the ocean.

The silence that settled after was nearly palpable and extremely uncomfortable, broken only by the sounds of waves slapping the sides of the boat and the engine in the background. Chie was the first to speak, her interest piqued by something Miza had said.

“...Takizawa-kun, was it?” she said, studying his face carefully—it’d been years and the brown hair she remembered was gone, replaced by sickly white and he looked almost dead behind the eyes, as though the universe had kicked him too many times, but she recognized him. “You went to Seinan Gakuin, didn’t you? We were in the same year.”

“Yoooou....” he stared at her for a long moment, trying to place her. It felt like high school was so long ago. Even though he still clung to his memories as a human, there was an odd distance and disconnection to them that became stronger as time passed—like they were underwater, and he was watching them through the distortion of ripples on the surface.

“You’re that camera girl everyone thought was weird. You’re buddies with _ghouls_ now?”

“I was buddies with them back then, too. Tsukiyama-kun and I met when I walked in on him eating a guy’s legs,” she replied, speaking of their meeting casually as though it was perfectly normal and didn’t involve a runner getting murdered.

He laughed, the sound short and nasal. “The most popular guy in high school was a ghoul all along.”

“Indeed, _Monsieur_ ,” Tsukiyama chimed in and squeezed Roma’s wrists harder than necessary. “I gave chase and intended to kill the little mouse, but then she had the guts to ask me to buy her dessert when I cornered her.”

“What’s next? Are you going to tell me you’re the Gourmet, too? I was assigned to the case, but…”

Takizawa didn’t even get to finish the sentence before Tsukiyama confirmed it with a smile. Exasperated, he slowly dragged his hand down his face.

* * *

Once they were back on dry land, they moved Akira to the back of a van Chie had borrowed from the same guy who lent her his boat. He was reliable, she told them. He didn’t ask questions as long as he got paid and his stuff was returned in one piece.

“She’s lucky nothing vital was hit,” Nishiki said, giving the investigator one final look-over to make sure she wouldn’t bleed out and die while they transported her to a safehouse. “She’ll probably have scars, but she’ll live. Just give her plenty of rest, yeah?”

Takizawa nodded and watched the group discuss among themselves what to do next; they couldn’t all cram into the van, and it would be safer if they moved in smaller groups. Tsukiyama and Chie proposed that they would stay in the van with Takizawa and that Mirumo would be the driver. Nishiki and Kurona decided to escort Roma to the sixth ward so they could get Banjou’s subordinates to look after her, while Irimi and Koma agreed to make sure the remnants of Aogiri reached :re safely.

Takizawa jumped into the back of the van and Tsukiyama and Chie followed after him. Chie pulled the doors shut behind her and sat down between the two ghouls. She peered at Takizawa curiously and then reached up to rake her hand through the front of his white hair. 

“Wow. Just like Kaneki-kun’s—” the mention of that name immediately made him swat her hand away.

“Don’t _do_ that,” he hissed, voice tinged with a warning that told her that she might lose her hand if she touched him again. It was tempting just to kill her right there and then, but something in him made him hold back, tapping his heel against the floor in annoyance instead as he looked to Akira’s unconscious body. 

He thought of what he had done back on island; he’d stabbed Tatara metaphorically in the back and literally in the front, in the mistaken belief that he would be welcomed back as a hero and that all the horrible things he had done would be glossed over and forgiven.

How wrong he had been. And yet, despite everything, Akira threw herself before that kid’s kagune and took an attack meant to finish him off.

Tsukiyama looked at the half-ghoul and asked, “What are you going to do now?”

There was a long pause before an answer came. The van started moving.

“I dunno. Wait for Amon, I guess,” he began, still staring at Akira. He shook his head to clear his mind before he continued. “Aogiri’s no more and the CCG doesn’t want me back. Maybe I’ll fly solo from here on out and live a carefree life feasting on humans. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

“It would. But you’re speaking to a hedonist, so I’m biased. I used to live that sort of lifestyle; decadent, but shallow. Always in pursuit of the ultimate experience.” He settled a hand on Hori’s head, patting her. She didn’t seem to mind much, being used to it; her head was at the right height for it, and Tsukiyama liked to keep his hands busy so he often found himself threading his fingers through her hair.

“Hori and I are cut from the same cloth, in a way. We both want the ultimate experience of our chosen interest.”

Takizawa looked up at Tsukiyama, his gaze questioning. “You used to? So what happened?”

“Many things,” he said, with a smile one would be wary of. “I met someone special to me; someone I wanted to eat, but I grew attached to the point that the notion of anything happening to him is enough to do ugly things to me. My family was wiped out by the CCG. My life as I knew it disappeared in the blink of an eye.”

“ _Good_. I don’t care.”

The remaining vestiges of the investigator he used to be still reared its head from time—ghouls weren’t to be pitied. They were predators that deserved nothing of the sort.

“It's fine if you don't care. I think he’d be offended if you pitied him, actually,” Chie said, ducking her head so Tsukiyama would pull his hand away. “What you do from now on is none of my business, but I think you should consider your options carefully. I mean, sure, you can wander off and gorge yourself on humans with reckless abandon until the day you die, but is that really what you want to do with your life?”

“...Why do you even care? We barely knew each other in high school; we’re not friends.”

“I actually don’t care,” she replied bluntly; there was nothing cold behind it, just a simple admission. “I’m just stating the facts. Do you agree with me?”

“...I don’t know. I don’t belong anywhere, not with my body being the way it is—there’s nowhere for me to go.”

She canted her head to the side, her expression unreadable. 

“What is ‘belonging’ to you, Takizawa-kun? Belonging doesn’t necessarily mean originating. Things have come and gone since the dawn of time and they don’t start out belonging—they adapt and thrive to become part of something new. Import a tree from Europe and you’ll eventually see it grow and bear fruit in Japan. More trees will spring up around it and eventually, a forest. Or something like that, anyway. I’m not trying to sound deep or anything.”

“Indeed," Tsukiyama said, that smile of his still playing on his lips. “Hori is quite the wise one. I'm not usually one for giving out advice, but after losing almost my entire family, I often reminded myself that I must live beautifully like a rose with my head held up high, and that I shall remain unbroken—and above all else, remain strong and bow to no one, because the weak bow down and the strong devour them. That's the natural order of the world. Those are the ideals I live by. Perhaps they will help you flourish like a rose or a tree, once you've found yourself some soil to belong in."

Takizawa stared at them both for a long moment, then averted his gaze to look at Akira once more and swallowed thickly, his mouth suddenly dry like desert sand. He thought the taste of freedom would be sweet, but it only left him lost and stranded and aimless and all possible roads ahead were so uncertain.

He reached down, his fingers stopping just short of Akira’s face. He hesitated, then pulled back without touching her.

The path ahead of him could wait until she was back on her feet.


End file.
